Pilgrimage Church and Franciscan Friary – Csíksomlyó

Pilgrimage Church and Franciscan Friary – Csíksomlyó

The Pilgrimage Church of the Visitation and the Franciscan friary of Csíksomlyó form one of the best-known pilgrimage sites of the Hungarian nation. It stands on the edge of Csíkszereda, at the foot of Kissomlyó Hill, and welcomes several hundred thousand pilgrims every year.

The first Gothic church and the small friary beside it were built between 1442 and 1448 with the support of John Hunyadi. In 1661 the church was burnt down by invading Turkish and Tatar troops, but the community had restored it by 1664.

Construction of the present twin-towered Baroque church began in 1804 to plans by Konstantin Schmidt; its towers were completed by 1830 and it was consecrated in 1876. In 1948 Pope Pius XII raised it to the rank of basilica (basilica minor).

The church's greatest treasure is a 227-centimetre Renaissance statue of the Virgin Mary, carved from limewood by an unknown master in the early 16th century, which Ignác Batthyány, Bishop of Transylvania, recognised as miraculous in 1798. Outstanding furnishings include the pulpit of 1835, the high altar of 1876, the stained-glass windows of 1905 and the organ with 2,824 pipes built in 1931 by the Wegenstein workshop of Temesvár.

The friary is also an important site in the cultural history of Székely Land: the Franciscans' printing press operated here, where János Kájoni's famous hymnal, the Cantionale Catholicum, was published in 1676.

Pilgrimages. The church's titular feast is 2 July, the Feast of the Visitation. Its greatest celebration is the Whitsun pilgrimage, whose festive Mass is held on the Saturday before Pentecost in the saddle between Kissomlyó and Nagysomlyó hills. Tradition links the origin of the pilgrimage to the battle of Tolvajos-tető in 1567; historians regard this as a legend, but the pilgrimage itself has been a living practice for centuries. On 1 June 2019 Pope Francis celebrated Mass here. The open-air Hármashalom Altar was built to designs by Imre Makovecz, and in 2020 the Whitsun pilgrimage was declared a Hungaricum.

Visiting: the church can be visited during the day; the shrine publishes its current Mass times on csiksomlyo.ro. More about the pilgrimage: The Secrets of Csíksomlyó.

Photo: Hektor894 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Photo: Mycroshop / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0